


an anchor

by ghoulromantism



Series: Torchwood Self-Insert Fics [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Canon Bisexual Character, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Ianto Jones Needs a Hug, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, Past Character Death, Past Lisa Hallett/Ianto Jones, Polyamory, Post-Battle of Canary Wharf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29221587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghoulromantism/pseuds/ghoulromantism
Summary: Grave quickly glanced at the clock behind him."Ianto...?" he whispered.- "Yes?"- "Did you have another nightmare...?"Ianto nodded slowly, his whole body still shaking. Grave pulled him into a hug, and Ianto couldn't help but start to cry, overwhelmed by the painful memories his dreams had reminded him of.
Relationships: Ianto Jones/Original Character(s), Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones/Original Character(s), Jack Harkness/Original Character(s)
Series: Torchwood Self-Insert Fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187696
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	an anchor

**Author's Note:**

> sooo characters being comforted by their s/o after a nightmare is one of my fave tropes, which you may have noticed already since this is only my 9th fic on here but this is already the 2nd one with this scenario...... 
> 
> i havent listened to dinner and a show or coffee yet so it might not be 100% accurate to recent canon but i dont care ill just change it later if needed. this takes place somewhere in season 2, i'd say btwn meat and fragments?? idk it can fit in a lot of places...
> 
> big thanks to my friends rose and prince for helping me so much with this <333 love u

Ianto woke up with a gasp and sat up on the bed. His eyes uselessly darted around the dark room. The sound of his own panicked breathing was the only thing he could hear. He searched around in the dark to try and get an idea of his surroundings, and his shaking hands eventually found something to hold onto: it was someone else's hand. An anchor to reality.

He held onto it for a while, not moving, as he slowly became more aware of his surroundings. He was in the Hub, the safest place in Cardiff. He wasn't in Jack's room — the bed Ianto was sitting on was much bigger than Jack's, and as practical as the bunker was, it was definitely too small for more than one person, no matter how much Jack insisted it was fine. He was probably in one of the many spare bedrooms of the Hub.

Ianto was startled when he felt his hand being lightly squeezed. He looked down at the person on the bed besides him. The faint light of the numbers on the alarm clock — 3:51 a.m. — illuminated the room just enough for him to make out Grave's silhouette as he was sitting up and rubbing his eyes (but he never let go of Ianto's hand in his). Grave quickly glanced at the clock behind him.  
"Ianto...?" he whispered.  
\- "Yes?"  
\- "Did you have another nightmare...?"  
Ianto nodded slowly, his whole body still shaking. Grave pulled him into a hug, and Ianto couldn't help but start to cry, overwhelmed by the painful memories his dreams had reminded him of.  
"I dreamed of it again, the— the screaming, and— and the blood, and all of us just— we couldn't do anything to stop it, we couldn't do anything anymore..."  
\- "Shhhht... Everything is okay... I'm here, you're safe now..."  
Ianto clung to Grave as much as he could. No matter how much time passed, the memory of the battle of Canary Wharf was still crystal clear in his mind, raw and terrifying. The mechanical noise of the Cybermen's footsteps in every hallway. His friends and co-workers, forced to walk to their deaths. Daleks in every street. And the screams, the cries of terror and pain as all the people Ianto loved were killed, or worse, converted into killing machines.

"And Lisa... Oh God, Lisa, they..."  
Ianto was cut off by his own uncontrollable sobbing. Grave softly whispered words of comfort as he gently stroked Ianto's hair. He knew how Ianto felt. They'd talked about it sometimes, in those quiet moments of strange, dull sadness. The pain, the grief, the loneliness, it strangely never got any easier. One moment, you were fine, the next, you were consumed by the desire to see the missing person again, and it felt like you were back to square one.

Ianto sometimes wondered if Lisa would have liked his boyfriends. She probably would; they loved him so much, they cared so much for him, and Lisa had always wanted the best for Ianto. Maybe if things had been different, they could've all met. They'd surely have become friends, or maybe Grave and Jack would even have fallen in love with her the way he did with her, the way they did with him. But that was all wishful thinking; there was no way for them to go back and change things now. Lisa was gone, and she'd never come back. 

"I just want her back, I— I miss her, and it hurts so much..."  
\- "I know, I know, and it's alright..."  
Ianto continued crying for a long time. He wasn't sure how long exactly, he just knew Grave and him were still holding on to each other even after Grave had ran out of comforting things to say and only kept on stroking Ianto's hair silently. 

"Where's Jack...?" asked Ianto once he'd calmed down a little. His breaths were still occasionally interrupted by sobs, but there were no more tears rolling down his cheeks.  
\- "I think he's working upstairs — do you want me to go and get him?"  
\- "No, please— stay."  
Grave nodded and kept holding Ianto in his arms. He pulled back just enough to look at Ianto as he put one of his hands on his cheek and gently stroked it.

Ianto couldn't see Grave's expression in the darkness, but he guessed — or at least hoped — that it was the same loving expression he'd sometimes caught on Grave's face for a split second, when they were alone together. It still felt a little strange for him to be the subject of such affection. After everything, after Lisa, he wasn't sure anyone would ever look at him that way again. He wasn't sure anyone would ever love him again.

And yet here he was now, with two people who loved him so much: Jack, who still seemed so full of love after all those years on Earth, after all those people he'd loved and lost (he sometimes told stories about them, those people from everywhere in space and time who kept on living through his memories of them), and Grave, who had just as much trouble expressing affection as Ianto did, but still cared so much, in his own unique ways.

Ianto was pulled from his thoughts by Grave's quiet voice.  
"Do you feel a little better now? I mean, do you... think you can sleep?"  
\- "I'm fine now."  
Grave still had an arm wrapped around Ianto's body, so he gently guided him to lay back down on the bed.  
"Thank you," whispered Ianto before closing his eyes.

Grave was his anchor: always here to keep him from drifting away into the darkness. Working for Torchwood meant Ianto couldn't be sure how long it would last, but Grave was here for him now, and that's all that mattered to him in that instant, in those last few moments of consciousness before sleep overtook his mind.

* * *

Jack wandered back to the bedroom he shared with Grave and Ianto in the Hub. Out of the three of them, Jack was the one who slept the least, so he usually worked all night when they stayed at the Hub rather than spending the night at Ianto's flat. Still, Jack enjoyed laying down next to them, even if he rarely managed to fall asleep, so he always tried to come back to them before Ianto woke up — he didn't sleep much either, so he woke up rather early in the morning.

The captain slowly opened the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. He turned on his small flashlight to make sure he didn't trip — the room was surprisingly cluttered compared to the rest of the Hub. He carefully avoided the two baskets of laundry at the foot of the bed; one containing the clothes Ianto had neatly folded after washing them, the other containing their dirty laundry in a messy pile.

Jack briefly flashed the light towards Grave and Ianto. They were asleep, close to each other, one of Ianto's hands threaded in Grave's messy black hair while Grave's arm was slung over Ianto's chest. They looked so peaceful, Jack couldn't help but sigh lovingly. He climbed on the bed and gently pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads before laying down next to Ianto and intertwining his fingers with Grave's. Jack closed his eyes; he wasn't sure if he would manage to sleep tonight, but he still enjoyed those peaceful moments spent with the people he loved.


End file.
